Side By Side Detroit

So as most of you know, we moved to Detroit in July of last year from Columbus, OH. We are so thankful that God provided the opportunity for us to come up here and transfer into a urology program seamlessly. It was a huge blessing. But like many wonderful, sweet things... there was hard part, which was that we were required to leave Columbus and all of the wonderful friends we have there. The opportunity and accompanying transition was bittersweet for sure. We have been up here for about 7-8 months now and are still desperately missing our group of friends in Columbus. But have recently found a new bright spot on the Michigan horizon. I managed to make contact with a couple of girls whose husbands are residents and med students who were interested in starting a detroit chapter of Side By Side, which is an offshoot of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) and is an organization designed to offer support and friendship for the spouses of medical professionals. Some people might not understand why we would need support. But let me just say that when you are moving to a new city every other year, your husband is working 80+ hours a week, and you don't make enough money to hire babysitters or get help (and your family is often on the other side of the country), you NEED support. There are few women who really understand what it feels like to eat dinner without your husband 5 out of 7 days a week, to spend holidays alone, throw your child a birthday party without their father in attendance, sleep alone every third night, spend 3 out 4 weekends a month alone with your kids and hearing about all the fun things your friends did with their kids and their husbands, manage absolutely EVERYTHING that needs to be done in your home, and the list goes on and on. I'm not complaining. God provided Josh's medical school acceptance and has orchestrated every step of his training since then. We are blessed. We also need support. God provided an amazing support system for us in Columbus that we will always cherish and love. And God is doing it again in Michigan and I am so excited! God is a faithful God! And He even cares that there are women in Detroit who are lonely and needing some friends. What a loving and compassionate God we serve!

I set out with my 2 new medical spouse friends to help start a Side By Side chapter in Detroit and we really were just kind of shooting in the dark. We had few connections and did not get a lot of interest from the local medical education programs or local churches. We scheduled our first meeting for last Friday night and showed up truly not knowing if there would be anybody there besides the 3 of us. We had passed out flyers and sent info. to as many people and places we could think of, but had no idea if it had gotten distributed effectively. We knew of only one other mom who had helped me plan playgroups that was definitely planning to be involved (who, BTW, I discovered on Friday is married to one of the wonderful med students who rented a room at our house and lived with us for 2 weeks during a rotation he was doing last year in Columbus, how funny is that?). There were 8 of us at that first meeting! And since that time there have been 3 more women who have connected with us. We now have 11 ladies to be the core of the Side By Side Detroit chapter! There are about 6 who have kids and are planning to participate in playgroup. That is an AMAZING start considering this is basically our first week in existence! I am thrilled and am looking forward to getting to know all of these women better. I am also reminded that God works things out and that we can trust him to provide, whether it's financially, emotionally, spiritually, or just because He knows you need some friends and a sense of community. I cannot wait to see how God grows this group and I know that He has big plans to meet the needs of women in the Detroit area and am thankful to be a part of what He is going to do.